Fellow Stories
True gap year stories from Fellows abroad!
Check out the latest blogs from Global Citizen Year Fellows in Brazil, Ecuador, and India!
Category
Class Year
Country
Sama Kër
Katie Dodge
2017-09-23
There is one paved road that runs through Thienaba. Shops and stands line either side, hoping to entice weary travellers with roasted peanuts or watermelon. Motorcycles weave around the trucks and taxis carrying goods and people from town to town. Every now and then a rickety bus will pull over and cram on another person...
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Ezekiel Alford
2017-09-23
I feel really out of place with my cohort. Besides with a few members. My new family I’m so happy the places me here I bonded so fast with my 5 brothers. They remind me of my friends back at home.
Read MoreSalty Water
Toluwani Roberts
2017-09-23
This blog post is inspired by my tears. I have cried more this week than I can remember crying this whole year. I didn’t cry when I left New York City. I didn’t cry during my week at Stanford or during my week in Quito. I didn’t cry for my mother and my father and...
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Ezekiel Alford
2017-09-23
My family makes me feel at home they know I don’t really like talking in Wolof or at all. Like I went to work for carpentry 10-3pm. And my family went to this big gathering. So it’s dinner time (9:45ish) my brothers and I are exhausted exhausted from the heat from the heat and not...
Read MoreNo fear
Sy Richardson Dragon
2017-09-23
I swear I thought it was a gun shot. But then I saw the orange sparks against the dark sky. Fire crackers. Ignited for me. I got out of the car and was welcomed by my sister Saroja. Eager to see my new home I left my chapals at the door and walked inside. A...
Read MoreStuck between two monkey bars
Ayla Blair-Smith
2017-09-23
Monkey bars were one of my favourite things at park as a child. Swinging from one bar to another. Though occasionally I was caught in between two bars, sweaty hands, slowly slipping, you know how it goes. It was in these moments that I was afraid to let go of the bar behind me and...
Read MoreYo no hablo Español
Allison Vaught
2017-09-23
Is the number one challenge I have had to overcome over my past couple weeks in Ecuador. It seems everyone speaks Spanish but me. It makes life difficult because I only speak English and maybe three words of Spanish. So when being told I will learn to speak Spanish and thrive is almost incomprehensible at...
Read MoreHeart Full, Brain Fried
Kaya Van Dyke
2017-09-22
Brazil is Bright. There are colors, smells, food and flowers everywhere I look. My fingers are constantly sticky with the juice of fruit, and I seem to not be able to fully wash the sand out of my hair. Brazil drips with culture. There is dancing, yelling, cooking and moving down every street....
Read MoreNew Continent, New Family
Erik Oline
2017-09-21
9-18-17 Keur Birima, Senegal. (wrote on the 18th, but uploaded 21st – Limited internet) Last Sunday (10-9) I left the comfort of the Tostan Training Center and headed out to meet my host family for the next seven months. Earlier in the week I had received a small packet about my host family and community...
Read MoreMystery of the Sambaqui
Nick Cleveland-Stout
2017-09-21
[vc_video link=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOlhh5uTki0′] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOlhh5uTki0
Read MoreSaved by Sheer Luck
Soraya Waller
2017-09-19
I’ve had a lot of adventures in the past few weeks. Things that make good stories. Things that probably would have made good blog posts. But whenever I sat down to write something up, I realized I wasn’t inspired to share these stories. After two weeks in India, I began to wonder if that was...
Read Moreecu(adore)
Leandra Pedretti
2017-09-19
i check in to my suitcase-hostel find home in overflowing pockets and zippers that won’t close every stony street sings lullabies to my tired luggage heart beat thuds and wheels that ache i find home in airport-limbo and goodbyes that still linger as i write this i find closure where i can and mourn the...
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